1 minute read

Does anyone remember Nick(elodeon) Arcade? I think they must have used a a physical area for the users to move in, but I wonder if an intrepid game programmer could use Project Natal to pull off a similar…but hopefully a lot more entertaining effect. The whole additive spacial moving thing will be a fun nut to crack…but hey who doesn’t love a challenge?

I know Microsoft’s whole pitch with Natal is controller-less gaming which is cool, but what’s so bad about a controller? Imagine how difficult pulling off a game like Wii Bowling would be with just Natal. There would be no precision or fine control over the ball, nor would there be a great way to alert natal when I released the ball. Opening and closing my fist may or may not be good enough to be picked up. Though, I suppose you could use voice recognition to say something like “Go” or “Release”. But I’m not so sure that’s an optimal solution, given that voice recognition (in general) as far as I’ve seen is never perfect and also tends to break down in areas of use that are time critical. I guess there’s something to be said for being able to provide input in discrete units to a game.

Now If I had a power-glove, nunchuck and wiimote to go along with Natal…

and maybe throw in eMotive for good measure…